wider applications goes beyond the scope of our present subject, which regards London alone: we shall therefore content ourselves with a brief sketch of the main drainage of London. Under the powers of the Metropolis Local Management Act and subsequent Acts of a like nature, the Metropolis Board of Works planned, and have now nearly completed, a system of drainage, consisting of three great arterial lines of sewer on each side of the Thames. On the north of the river the high-level sewer commences at Hampstead, intercepts and carries off the sewage of that place, Highgate, Hackney, Clapton, Stoke Newington, and Holloway, and after running a course of seven miles forms a junction with the middle-level sewer at Bow. This latter comes from the Harrow-road by way of Oxford-street, Clerkenwellgreen, Old-street-road, Shoreditch, Bethnal-Green-road, and Green-street, and brings with it the sewage of the districts adjoining its course. At the same point also arrives (or rather will arrive when completed) the low-level sewer. This comes from the south-west of London through Bessborough-street to Vauxhall Bridge, and thence along the river-side, where it is intended to take its course under the Thames embankment, and so to Tower-hill and by the Commercial-road. From Bow the great outfall sewer is carried across the marshes, raised high above the flats by embankments and arches, until it reaches Barking Creek. A similar threefold system of sewers is provided for the part of the metropolis south of the Thames, with an outfall into the river at Crossness. It will easily be seen that the low-level sewers would not meet the higher at the same elevation. Hence, in order to bring them to a common outfall into the river, pumping-stations have been constructed, where the sewage is lifted by steam power. In the end, the contents of the whole system on each side of the Thames are passed into huge reservoirs, so situated that their contents can be discharged into the river at high water. In this lies the virtue of the whole scheme. Under the old plan the sewage found its way into the bed of the river at or near low water, the mouths of the pipes having a flap which the rising tide closed, in order to prevent its flooding the sewers. The consequence was that the mass discharged during the previous ebb was churned up and brought back to London by the incoming tide. Under the new system it is calculated not only that the sewage will be diluted by the whole mass of water of the river, but that the ebb tide will sweep it away too far to be brought back again by the returning stream. It would be interesting to go more at length into this great work (the cost of which will be somewhat over 4,000,0007.) as a triumph of engineering; but we must forbear, both because we have other matter before us, and also because it has occupied so large a share of public attention, that our readers are probably far better acquainted with it than with other subjects on which we must say something before we conclude. We are approaching the end of the very imperfect enumeration which our space has allowed us to present of recent sanitary reforms.* But we must not wholly omit the powers for regulating bakehouses both as to cleanliness and as to the hours of labour therein (26 and 27 Vict., c. 40), and the powers of inspecting and seizing bad or diseased meat exposed for sale (26 and 27 Vict., c. 117, and previous Acts in pari materie), vested in the local authorities. The latter are very useful in those districts of the metropolis where large markets exist, and it is possible that they may require to be extended. The revelations recently made respecting trichinosis are sufficiently startling. It appears from the able pamphlet of Dr. Althaus on this disease, that the flesh of pigs is frequently infested by a very small worm, called the trichina spiralis, and that those who eat pork containing these animalcules become liable to indisposition, fever, and not unfrequently to death. The cysts in which the worms are at first enveloped are dissolved by the gastric juice, the creatures stretch themselves in the stomach, grow rapidly, increase in number, and migrate through (or between) the coats of the intestines into the muscles. Here they produce irritation, inflammation, and other distressing symptoms, with fainting fits and delirium. Finally, if the disease be not arrested by medical treatment, the pain is excessive, and twitches occur in the muscles; lockjaw is severe, and the tongue cannot be protruded. At last the pulse becomes innumerable and death ensues, with all the symptoms of complete exhaustion of the nervous centres.' (Althaus, On Poisoning by Diseased Pork,' p. 21.) How completely these parasites will penetrate the human subject is shown by the fact that the muscles of the eye are almost always full of them.' This disease, though principally prevalent on the continent, has probably occurred in this country oftener than has been suspected. It is stated that trichinæ have in many instances been detected on dissection in the hospitals of London and Edinburgh. Dr. Althaus suggests that, in consequence, both the keeping of pigs and the sale of pork should be placed under special regulations. Unhappily it seems to require the microscope in order to detect the diseased condition of the meat, and this renders it difficult to adopt precautions that shall be generally applicable. Yet there The Act against adulteration of food (23 and 24 Vict., c. 84) is unfortunately clogged with difficulties and has had little effect. The subject requires reconsideration. is is no point in which the poorer classes need more protection than in the matter of their food. Unscrupulous from ignorance, and with little power of choice from their limited means, they become an easy prey to those who would pass off upon them most unwholesome viands. We have indicated more than once in the preceding pages that sanitary legislation has not yet completed its task. We proceed to note some special points, to which the attention of Parliament must sooner or later be given. A crying evil is the habit of keeping a corpse unburied for a long period, and that in the one room occupied by the living members of the family. Power ought to be given to a magistrate to interfere in such cases, for they are fruitful sources of disease; and seeing that an authority of this nature actually exists within the limits of the city, there ought to be the less hesitation in extending it to London generally. Again, if health is to be preserved where buildings are crowded upon each other, some means ought to exist of securing that houses shall have proper facilities for ventilation, no less than proper drainage. A medical officer of a large district in the heart of London recently complained that under the existing system by which houses are packed almost as closely as they can stand, it is of small utility to tell the poorer class to open their windows, for little or no air enters when they do so. And there is much truth in such a complaint. The provision of the present Building Act (18 and 19 Vict., c. 122, § 29), that every dwellinghouse (unless all the rooms can be lighted and ventilated from a street or alley adjoining) shall have in the rear or on the side thereof an open space exclusively belonging thereto of the extent, at least, of one hundred square feet,' is obviously insufficient. There seems no good reason why a builder should not be controlled by the sanitary authorities in respect of his proposed provision for the access of air as well as in respect of his intended scheme of drainage. The latter he is compelled to lay before them before he can commence building. Another point relates to water supply. The history of this question is curious. Under the present acts, the vestries have power to order that proper water supply shall be laid on to any house, and to see that it is adequate to the number of inhabitants. Should it not be so, they can call upon the landlord either to increase his quantity of water, or to decrease the number of his lodgers; and should he refuse, a magistrate may interfere just as in an ordinary case of overcrowding. In other words, the law treats a house where the number of people is out of proportion In the City Sewers Act,' 11 and 12 Vict., cap. clxiii. § 90. to to the supply of water, in just the same way as a tenement where there are too many people for the supply of air. In either case if the pure element cannot be increased, the number of those who are to share in it must be diminished. But all this, useful as it is, presumes cisterns and pipes, and a power to profit by them. But alas! in the lowest depth there is a lower still. There are courts and alleys where the inhabitants sympathise with Lady Strangford's 'Montenegrin'-despise or reject such conveniences, wilfully put them out of gear, or break up the pipes and sell them for what they will fetch, while the landlord's back is turned; or, if they do not go so far as this, at all events suffer the cisterns or butts to be dirty, foul, or rotten, and thus for purposes of health worse than useless. What is the remedy? Probably (though the question is not free from difficulty) some such method as is recommended by Mr. Liddle, the medical officer of Whitechapel, should be adopted. At present, in many courts, water is only to be obtained from a stand-tap in the centre, where the water flows for twenty minutes daily at most, and not at all on Sundays. At these stand-taps scenes of quarrelling often occur; and in most cases, where the supply is very short, the strongest only can get their vessels filled, the water being shut off before the weaker can get near to the stand-post.' How truly barbarous and disgraceful! Mr. Liddle, therefore, urges that there should be a continuous supply of water, but that it should be protected from waste by a mechanical contrivance called a Patent Absolute Water Waste Preventer' [could not the thing be expressed in English?] or in some other effectual manner. In this way, the denizens of our courts and alleys would have an abundant quantity of water opposite to their doors, if not within their houses, and the machinery would not be liable to become spoiled or out of order. Certainly, the point is one which deserves further attention; and in some shape or other, probably further legislation. In any case there is one lesson which may and ought to be drawn from it. What we have just been saying surely shows how needful it is, not merely to provide the means of health, but to teach people to appreciate them. We want, then, almost above all things, that the masses should be educated to value health, and to understand the best methods of preserving it. And here we cannot but mention 'The Ladies' Sanitary Association,' which steps in to assist in this work. By tracts, by cottage almanacks, by oral lectures, this excellent society strives to convey useful information on such subjects to all who will Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Whitechapel District for the three Months ending 2nd July, 1864.', either read or listen. Surely this is eminently a ladies' province, thus to contribute towards the comfort of the home and the health of the family. It is impossible not to wish so pure and useful an undertaking every success. Perhaps we might offer a sugges tion to the clergy that they could materially aid these efforts, by distributing the tracts of the Association through the medium of whatever agency they employ for the visitation of the dwellings of the poor in their parishes. We pass on to another point-the systematic visitation of factories, workshops, and workrooms. Speaking of trades which require the use of arsenical green, phosphorus, or other injurious matters, Mr. Simon, in his Report to the Privy Council for 1862, says, 'all industrial establishments which directly or indirectly endanger health, ought to be subject to official superintendence and regulation.' But this is not all. Branches of industry, not in themselves hurtful, become so from the careless arrangements under which they are carried on. To his account of hurtful occupations,' Mr. Simon has added a report on those which are 'hurtfully conducted,' and we extract, as a sample, a few words on tailors and dressmakers. The following is an account of what Dr. Smith, to whom the inquiry was intrusted, found in sixteen of the most important tailors' shops at the West End : 'The largest cubic space in these ill-ventilated rooms allowed to each operative and the gaslight is 270 feet, and the least 105 feet, and in the whole average only 156 feet per man.* In one room, with a gallery running round it, and lighted only from the roof, from 92 to upwards of 100 men are employed, where a large number of gaslights burn... The cubic space does not exceed 150 feet per man. In another room, which can only be called a kennel in a yard, lighted from the roof, and ventilated by a small skylight opening, five to six men work in a space of 112 cubic feet per man. Such a state is, as far as my inquiries have yet extended, without parallel in workshops in other trades.'† The condition of printers' workmen is also bad; but we must not dwell on it, and must pass on to that of dressmakers. Dr. Ord, who investigated this branch, says: "In some of the large houses, ventilation by special apparatus is carefully attended to; but in the commoner workrooms ventilation is certainly disregarded, and it is not uncommonly found that ventilators, even To be able to judge of Dr. Smith's figures, such of our readers as are new to the subject should bear in mind that 300 feet is usually considered the minimum for an adult (at all events in a sleeping-apartment). The Queen's Regulations give 600 in military barracks. And the presence of a number of large gaslights adds vastly to the evil. † 'Sixth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council, 1863,' p. 25. T 2 when |